Apologies if this has been covered a thousand times already, but why does Caesar need the Courier when he has the platinum chip already (presuming you let Benny escape, of course)? I recently abandoned my Caesar's Legion playthrough, and part of the reason was the (to me) seemingly nonsensical plotting at this point (meeting the mighty Caesar and finding that *this* was the charismatic warlord with multiple states under his banner was also a factor). Maybe it's all revelead in later dialogue, but I couldn't understand why, with the prime MacGuffin in his posession, Caesar would then start entrusting the most delicate and important parts of his plan to a random mercenary with uncertain allegiances. I can see why he'd need the Courier to get at House, but beyond that it all seems massively contrived. The man has an army of spies and soldiers at his disposal, what does he need me for?

He's going to want you to do his dirty work eliminating the other factions for him that might ally with his enemies and thereby clearing his path to victory.

Yeah, but why does he need you to do that, rather than one of his many subordinates? Why isn't Vulpes running around the wastes making alliances and eliminating malcontents? Why is Caesar entrusting so much of his plan to a random merc of questionable loyalty when he has vast numbers of blindly loyal dogsbodies at his disposal?

(Obviously I mean from a narrative perspective, from a game design pov it's to give the player another faction to quest for.)

The story for Caesar falls apart when you realize there is exactly zero NRC military forces between Cottonwood Cove and Mojave Outpost. He who holds that outpost owns the NCR's supply line. Without that supply line the Mojave becomes the NCR's Stalingrad if they do nothing. If the NCR redeploys forces to to quickly retake the outpost they lose something else major, like the dam.

The NCR should be quite thankful that Caesar is a incompetent fool.

Heres the quote from Caesar himself:

"You get shot in the head, wander to a settlement and live, and then you stumble into the Lucky 38, and all of a sudden the securitrons have new faces and are much more deadlier? You have motive, and if you want it done you get it done, and I like that about you."

He basically thinks you are like a god.

What DarkxWater says. Caesar respects strength.

He wants a member outside of his Legion to do his dirty work for him. Sound familiar? *Cough* Brotherhood of Steel *Cough*

That's pretty flimsy though. "Oh, you seem like a badass dude, even though I have an army of uber-loyal badass dudes at my disposal I shall ignore them and let you single-handedly carry out virtually every aspect of my plan to conquer the Mojave while I kick back in my tent, because even though I know nothing of your motives and loyalties there is absolutely no way you could betray me and scupper my plans, it is inconceivable."

The man is supposed to be a tactical genius, and yet his master scheme is so full of potential pitfalls it could be a best-selling Atari 2600 game.



But why?

Consider it tactically from Caesar's perspective.

-If he ignores you, at best you stay out of the fight, at worst you work for someone else.
-If he hires you and you try to help him, at best you clear his path to victory, at worst you die and get put out of the way.
-If he hires you and you go work for another faction, that's not much different than the worst case in the first instance.

The only real downside is if he hires you to do an important job one of his men could do and relies on you instead, but if you go to him with no prior dealings, consider what he has you do to start. He already had men die in the Securitron area, so it's an understandable gamble that he would want you to handle a problem that dangerous. He asks you to get the Boomers on his side, which is very reasonably something only you can do, since no one else has survived the bombardment to reach them. I didn't do anything past that, but if you get to that point he has reason to believe you're basically with him.

Caesar and his boys are technophobic. Hell, it's practically their policy. Descending into a steel pit filled with robots is like going straight down Satan's anus to them.

So Caesar hears reports of some awesome strong hero right at exactly the same time as some other idiot shows up with a magic key in his pocket. Doesn't seem too unreasonable that he might see that timing as more than a little fortuitous and take advantage of it.

Once he explains his philosophy, from one awesome hero to another, it probably never occurs to him that the new guy wouldn't want to join up. Maybe if he took more time to think about it, he'd realize it's kind of dumb, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who constantly questions his first impulses.

@Spiffy McBang:

He's had people die in the bunker under the weather station? I thought the point was the door was locked and couldn't be opened without the platinum chip. If Benny escapes and gets captured by the Legion, then Caesar has the chip. Send one of his grunts down there to blow it up, not someone who'll potentially betray him and upgrade the Securitrons.

On the Boomers, no-one else having survived trying to meet them isn't reason why only you can do it, it's reason to think that you too will be killed in the process. Maybe that's the real reason he sends you there, as an elaborate way of getting you out of the picture.

I dunno, Caesar's Legion seem to be all-powerful when the story wants it, but utterly incompetent when the game needs some second-act stuff for the player to do if they side with the Legion.

@Zombra: the legion aren't that technophobic, Caesar and his guards are running round with Displacer gloves and Ballistic Fists on.

Sorry, he said he had people die trying to open it. Pretty sure that was it- people dying was involved, at least. Same concept remains.

As for the Boomers, precisely. There's basically no downside.

Sure, and they use guns. Their philosophy is still highly technophobic; they just make exceptions when it suits them, like an "environmental' president who supports massive oil drilling.

Hey, I'm just trying to give you reasons why the story makes sense. If you insist on knocking down anything that isn't realistic enough, why question the relationship of Caesar to the Courier? Why not start with towns that have 3 buildings, a civilization based on money and gambling when over half the population is starving and there's only one 200' square farm within 100 miles, or enemies recognizing you as "wanted" from 200 yards away, then changing their minds because you change your shirt?

I still think the Legion having an irrational case of "we don't wanna go down there" is at least a passable excuse for the PC to be drafted instead.

Hmmm, I don't think it's lack of realism that bothers me with the Caesar's Legion scenario, more the fact that the great Caesar, scourge of the NCR, is such a cretinous bonehead come the endgame. He's so absurdly trusting. "I'll just assume that all that racket I heard was you following orders, no need to have anyone check". The man's an idiot, which makes it very difficult to want to side with him no matter what sort of character I'm rping.



The man's a brutal tyrant who thinks nothing of literally decimating his own troops when they displease him, I don't think he'd be in the least bit squeamish about sending some grunts to near-certain doom, even if he'd rather not go down in the dark cellar himself. Still, maybe you're right, and I should just roll with the punches of another endgame scenario. It just seems so horribly contrived though.

The man has a brain tumor.

Ceasar also doesnt like his men getting certain ideas, as he confides in you when he sends you into the securitron vault. Since you already have seen these things.

I think the reason why he sends you down the Securitron vault is because he already had men die down there due to the ambient radiation and robots. In short he prob was expecting you to just fail and die

Caesar's a nutjob with a brain tumor; not sure logic enters the equation. But I'll try.

When his spies see you enter the Lucky 38 they call Caesar on their phones (I guess....). Caesar has had recent troubles with the entrance to the bunker. The bunker has Lucky 38 markings. Benny has just tried to sneak in. He has the platinum chip in his possession.He has been judged unsuitable for recruitment. Caesar has been keeping tabs on you and has decided that your allegiances are not yet fixed. In his hubris, he believes that he can coerce or recruit the one individual in the wastes who may possess secret knowledge about Mr. House -- you.
Eh. It sort of works. I have to admit that I found the situation somewhat unconvincing the first time I played it.

Having said all that, this is a video game plot. It's there to provide a fun, engaging series of incidents. It's not an airtight narrative by any means. The war, and the manner in which it is being fought, makes little sense unless you accept that everyone involved (with the possible exception of Mr. House) is an idiot.

Caesar's Legion is formed from illiterate raiders and tribals. No matter how much he may have tried to quash their superstitions, he can't eliminate them all. Just look at what happened to the slaves taken from Africa. They had their culture and language suppressed through torture, [censored], and mutilation but they still kept many of their cultural beliefs and superstitions. The Legion was created from people who probably have a great fear of things they don't understand, like computers and robots, and Caesar needs someone who doesn't have those superstitious beliefs to work for him. The Courier is such a person.

He has a brain tumor, cut the man a break.

Well, there's the irradiated hole of Searchlight along the only highway in the way, plus the remnants of the Searchlight garrison _and_ its feral ghouls... kinda hard to stage a large invasion force through that. Then there is station Echo and, of course, the NCR forces at Pimm and the Mojave Outpost itself. Even if you take into account the Legion victory at Nipton that wiped out a bunch of NCR troops and Powder Gangers, that still doesn't exactly add up to zero hostiles between the Cove and Mojave outpost. In terms of the story of New Vegas itself, the frustation of various members of the NCR forces to finish off Ceaser one way or the other is a major part of the plot.

Well he knows that you have collaborated with Mr. House and he wants Mr. House out of the picture. So....

He knows he can't beat NV without your help.

He knows the player character is a god who will always win in the end so his only chance is to make good with you by offering a Legion ending. /metagame perspective

I fix it for you.